ON SABLR ISLAND. 7 



homeward, he passed two islands, which he might conehide the sand-hills to he. If tliis 

 were correct, it would be the first recorded notice of this island heing seen liv mortal man. 

 But this view is a mere conjectnre, with scarcely anj-thing to support it. 



It is certain, however, that at the beginning of the sixteenth centur}- the tisjiermen of 

 western Europe were acquainted with it. This is shown Ijy maps of the period. One pre- 

 served in the royal library at Munich, marked as made by Pedro Reinel, who is described 

 by Herrera as " a Portuguese pilot of much fame," and supposed to be of about the year 

 1505, has it under the name of Santa Cruz. 



On the 13th March, 1521, the king of Portugal granted to Joam Alvarez Fagundez a 

 large territory embracing Nova Scotia and adjacencies, together with various islands lying 

 otf it, which he is said to have discovered on a previous voyage, and among them is Santa 

 Cruz. 



Under this name it also appears in the celeliratcd niappcniondc dated 1544, attriliuted 

 to Sebastian Cabot, and in a Portuguese nuip of Diego Hoiucni it ap[icars under the similar 

 name of I. da Crus. 



Gastaldi, a distinguished Italian cartographer, in a nni[) of 1548, represents it umlcr the 

 name Isolla del Arena, and he is followed by his countryman Zaltieri in 1566. Put as 

 early as 1546 Joannes Freire, a Portuguese mapmakcr, calls it I. de Sable. A number of 

 other maps of this century show an islaiul unnamed in a position indicating that this was 

 the one intended, and by the end of that period it seems to have been commonly known by 

 that name. 



It is therefore certain that at this early period the island was well known to the fisher- 

 men and traders who resorted to our coasts. In addition we find it occupied by Europeans, 

 who, if they did not permanent!}' reside upon it, placed upon it cattle, which bred and mul- 

 tiplied. Lescarbot, the historian of Port Royal, says that the Baron de Léry undertook to 

 commence a colony in America, and with that object sailed from France in 1518 witb a liand 

 of emigrants. But failing in his purpose, he returned home, leaving the cattle on this 

 island. lie writes al)Out one hundred vears after the event, and mentions it incidentally in 

 referring to La Roche's emigrants in 1598; but as no notice of such an expedition appears 

 in any record or in the works of any author during that interval, we cannot regard his 

 authority as sufficient to establish tlie tint. Moreover, Charlevoix, who was diligent in col- 

 lecting information regarding the early voyages to America, and who, in his " Fastes 

 Chronologiques," has given a chronological table of them, knew nothing of de Léry's. 

 Neither does Champlain, who was on the same expedition as Lescarbot to Port Royal, who 

 had the same means of information, and is more relial)le as a historian. He refers also to the 

 fact of cattle being upon the island, but says they were left there about sixty years before 

 he wrote, or about the year 1552, by the Portuguese. All the circumstances render the 

 idea of such an expedition as Lescarbot ascribes to de Léry at that time utterly improljable. 

 France was in such a condition that her rulers had not begun the work of western explor- 

 ation. It was six years later that Verrazzano received his commission for that purpose, and 

 exploration almost necessarih- preceded colonization. Norman and Breton fishermen, it is 

 true, were by that time visiting the banks and coasts of Newfoundland, and perhaps also 

 Acadia and the St. Lawrence, but they did not favour colonization. Indeed, at that time 

 the idea had not taken possession of the French people, nor had the king set up his claim to 

 territorial authoritv in America. 



